Hold your nose and vote for sanity

At 35.5%, the far-right Rassemblement National, alongside the right-flank of the Republicains, came first. In second place was the Nouveau Front Populaire – the united left coalition, ranging from the far-left to the centre-left – at 29.5%. Finally, Emmanuel Macron’s own Ensemble polled at 19.5% – a distant third.

As the French press has been reporting, many of the latter consider themselves to be “ni-ni” – neither-nor. If faced with a second round where the only choices are the united left coalition and the far right, they wouldn’t vote, vote blank, or spoil their ballot. As they see it, both sides are as bad as each other, and they cannot possibly choose.

Now, before I let my head turn red then blow up like a cartoon character, I should make something clear. I loathe Jean-Luc Melenchon, the leader of far-left party La France Insoumise. I profoundly dislike the man, both personally and politically. A number of his views make me baulk, and I find his very demeanour, and the way he speaks and conducts himself, to be deeply off-putting.

Now that is out of the way, we can focus on the white hot steam coming out of my ears. As you may remember, Jean-Marie and Marine Le Pen’s far-right has been first or second in the polls on three occasions. In 2002, 2017 and 2022, father then daughter were threatening to get really rather close to the presidency.

On all three of these occasions, the other candidate was either right-wing, as Jacques Chirac was, a centrist, as Macron pretended to be at first, then centre-right, as Macron eventually revealed himself to be. On all three of these occasions, left wing voters, from the communists to the centre-leftists, were asked to vote for people they did not agree with, in order to keep the far-right out of power.

On all three of these occasions, they did it, and the far-right did not win, and the victorious candidate then went on to entirely ignore those voters. Did Chirac compromise with the left because he knew he owed them at least some of his presidency? Did Macron? I’ll give you three guesses.

Of course, those voters aren’t stupid, and they saw what happened the first and second time they lent their votes then got ignored. That doesn’t mean that they didn’t do it a third time, two years ago, when it was demanded of them.

This is why I have been following French news with a grinding jaw for the past few weeks. Once again, the far-right is at the gates. Earlier this month, Jordan Bardella, who would become prime minister if the party wins, told the press that foreign-born French citizens would have “nothing to fear” as long as they behaved. These people aren’t people hiding who they are.

For the first time, right-wing and centre-right voters are being asked to pinch their nose and vote for a candidate they do not agree with, but who isn’t of the far right. Amazingly, they are now realising that it is a tough thing to do, and feels quite painful and uncomfortable.

To them, I wish I could say: where have you been over the past twenty years or so? Are difficult choices one of things only left-wing voters should have to deal with? No-one is asking them to go to the barricades, or sing The Internationale, yet many are treating the prospect of voting for the left as a one-off like an impossible imposition.

To say that it is frustrating wouldn’t even begin to cover it. Still, there isn’t much I or others can do, aside from hope that they will see the error of their ways before going to the polling station at the end of the week, and again the week after that. Saving the republique may not always be easy, but it is something we all have to do together, or we’ll lose.